This is a course blog for the classes on digital government and social media in the public sector" class taught by Professor Ines Mergel at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University. The blog posts include comments and ideas from MPA, MAIR and EMPA students studying the use of new technologies in the public sector.

Thursday, April 23, 2015

How social media is transforming government agencies in South Korea

While
some government agencies still tend to employ the "broadcast" model
when using social media, many agencies are engaging through hashtags, community
building initiatives, and geo-location analysis. These efforts are helping to
better inform the public and alert them to public safety emergencies in
real-time.

Creating a Transparent Community

At the
most basic level, social media is about community building. Government agencies
have adopted this mindset to varying degrees as a way to foster trust and
dialogue with people. I feel that It is truly a national town hall that has
never been attempted during a disaster

At the local law enforcement
level, Web 3.0 technology has been implemented in some departments to give
people details about what officers have been up to. At any Police Department in
South Korea, Twitter is
used to
solicit help from the public and Facebook is used as a comment and complaint board
for residents.

Tracking and Creating Hashtags

Law
enforcement and emergency response agencies alike are also becoming more
sophisticated in how they use Twitter. While monitoring hashtags is
commonplace, some agencies are creating them to denote specific social media
priorities — particularly, getting users to document certain
events.

While the
more traditional means of sharing information with people, such as press conferences
or releases, will always be necessary to brief the public in detail about
events, agencies are turning to social media to keep the public informed in
real-time.

On April
3rd, Detective Chief Inspector of
the Seoul Police in the South Korea used Tweetdeck to keep an eye on demonstrations
involving two controversial and politically opposed groups "This is groundbreaking stuff for policing in the South Korea. We have
used social media as a broadcast platform during protests in the past, but we
have not had immediate updates from officers on the ground, enabling two-way
conversations," the Chief Inspector wrote after the event.

Conclusion

For
government agencies, social media not only sends and gathers information
instantaneously — it fosters relationships and trust, while
encouraging users to share important information. While not all social media
use needs to be creative, agency engagement with these platforms can help show
people that government organizations are listening.